Olympians: Hooking Up As We Speak

World-class athletes usually seem fairly humorless, as we only see them preparing for and competing in competitions. However, says former Olympic table-tennis player Matthew Syed in the London Times today, there is a whole lot of hooking up going on during the Olympics: "This sex fest was not limited to Barcelona: the same thing happened in Sydney in 2000, my second Olympics as an athlete, and is happening right here in Beijing, where this time I'm a commentator."

"I played my first Games in Barcelona in 1992 and got laid more often in those two and a half weeks than in the rest of my life up to that point. That is to say twice, which may not sound a lot, but for a 21-year-old undergraduate with crooked teeth, it was a minor miracle. ... ...I spoke to an Aussie table tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: "It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world." A British runner (anonymous again: athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR type, least of all about sex) said: "The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption."